Oven appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber for baking or broiling food items therein. Oven appliances also generally include a self-cleaning feature for cleaning the cooking chamber. To heat the cooking chamber for baking or for self-cleaning, gas oven appliances include one or more gas burners positioned at a bottom portion of the cooking chamber and may be beneath the floor of the cooking chamber.
When positioned beneath the floor of the cooking chamber, openings can be provided on the sides of the floor to allow heated air to pass from beneath the floor into the cooking chamber. Typically, this heated air travels vertically upward along the sides of the cooking chamber, by-passing food near the center of the cooking chamber, and reaching the top of the cooking chamber. From here, the heated air may then travel towards the center of the oven where the heated air from both sides of the cooking chamber can meet. The resulting turbulence may direct some heated air towards food positioned on racks in the oven center.
Thus, with this conventional construction, air heated by the gas burner (or other heating element) is directed toward the sides of the cooking chamber, without directing heated air toward, e.g., the center of the cooking chamber. This can result in the cooking chamber having areas of cooler temperatures, which can negatively affect baking and self-clean performance. In addition, because heated air is also typically not directed towards the front or door of the cooking chamber, this can also result in an area of cooler temperature as the door may not be as well insulated as the walls of the cooking chamber and heat is lost when the door is opened.
Accordingly, an oven appliance with features for directing the flow of heated air would be useful. In particular, an oven appliance with features for directing the flow of heated air from beneath the floor of the cooking chamber towards the center of the cooking chamber would be advantageous. Further, an oven appliance having a slot that directs a flow of heated air across the front portion of the cabinet would also be useful.